RE: Porsche 911 (996) Turbo: PH Carpool

[996jim]

My sentiments exactly. I always wanted a Porsche Turbo, finally bought one seven years ago and kept it just eighteen months. It was fast but absolutely no soul. Should have bought one from the seventies. Still, live and learn, well I never did as I baulked at the chance to but an immaculate black F.575 from Lovett's and bought a V8 Vantage Roadster instead, oh woe is me.

Goatboy said:

I thought mine was incredibly efficient but had no soul.

Still was a great depreciation proof motor to own for two years.

[blade7]

The front bumper looks too big on a 996 turbo compared to the 993 turbo.

[mik_jg]

Well done! Delighted to see someone get the car of their dreams

[paulvx220T]

Enjoy your new car just sold my X50 after 4 months great car but did not connect with it, it did not put a smile on my face, just bought a Lotus Exige S and the smile is back. Cars are a personal choice so good luck.

[ukwill]

markcoznottz said:

My mate owns an independent porsche garage, so I often poke around around under ' just bought' cars, some people buy the car and then get a multi point check!!. Some are seriously ropey underneath now, rads, power steering leaks, and especially the coolant and air con piping which follows a torturous path around the engibe with loads of jubilee clips. Don't forget rear boots, etc you know the score. Not a cheap car to run despite what people might tell you. The sweet spot for buying these was definately 2009-2010, loads of them with the OPC warranty still running which gave you peace of mind, and some punters literally giving thier cars away for mid twenties when they had paid nearly 40 a couple of years before.

That was me

Bought for 50 in 06, sold for 29 in early 10. Upon selling, the idea was to buy an e39 m5 whilst coming up with the usual interesting man maths required to get into the next 4-wheeled bucket list item.

4yrs on and the E39 is still in the drive...

The 996T was and still remains an amazingly adept car. My only criticism is that it is simply far too good for our roads/speed limits.

[VorsprungDurch]

35 mpg when being frugal - I can't believe it.. Must be a typo and meant 25..

[f1ten]

Absolutely agree i was consistantly looking at the speedo After a 5 second birst down sussex and surreys finest roads and realising i was doing 130 in a 60 and thought whilst it was a great rush, its so capable that its too fast for some roads and likely to get you in to severe trouble. Like for example when I was drivin down the highway to Split in Croatia and I sat pretty much 150 the whole way with a few squirts up to 170 on empty straights. All nice until I got flagged by an unmarked mercedes police car and he had caught be at138mph. I almost smiled when he said that as I thought he had caught me much faster when I left him behind Iin the rear view mirror. Mine had the aero kit and rempapped and was just so rock solid at that speed

RWD cossie wil said:

I bought mine in Feb this year off a good mate who owned it for 4 years prior to me buying it. As a standard car (414Bhp, no mods, manual) they are a very quick car, far quicker in the "real world" than the paper stats suggest.

The problem with the turbo is that power is its party trick, & everyone thinks that is what the car is about. Dig a bit deeper, & you realize what an amazing chassis the car has, and from initially thinking the handling wasn't that great, taking a step back & thinking about it, the issue is that you are arriving at corners 20-30mph faster than you are used to. I also own an E46 M3, with a vast array of suspension mods for track work, it's a great car, but even after all of the work, the 911 suspension (80k miles old & totally standard) is better on the road, there just isn't a situation where it feels challenged. Add to that perfectly weighted controls, a lovely manual box & great looks & I think it's a pretty hard package to beat.

The best bit is, if you get bored tuning is easy, and opens up a whole new world of speed!

[Geesus]

Lovely car.
I'm fishing around for a nice car for weekends and Trackdays.
4 seats will keep the wife happy too!
How does the 996 Turbo compare to the 996 GT3 and 997 Turbo in track terms?

[aww999]

Geesus said:

Lovely car.
I'm fishing around for a nice car for weekends and Trackdays.
4 seats will keep the wife happy too!
How does the 996 Turbo compare to the 996 GT3 and 997 Turbo in track terms?

I asked this back on page 1 but no responses yet. Default answer seems to be "buy a GT3" but they are ina different price bracket now, and I really need rear seats!

[kmack]

Most of these appear to be Auto - what are they like and are they to be avoided?

[Crimp]

On my 3rd 996 turbo following a stint with a GT2 and GT3.
Currently running 550 BHP+ full GT2 Kit and a nice pipe. Amazing piece of kit and with the traction not a lot the roads to worry it

[Pepsi Max 996T]

I also bought a 996 Turbo in September but played it safe and went to a specialist (Yorkshire Classic Porsche). Mine is a one owner tiptronic, with a full opc history and a mere 18k on the clock !! I did pay top dollar but the car is perfect. My only issues are the steering does not adjust for rake and is too low and the cd player (both 6cd and unit) keeps jumping. Currently getting 17 mpg but the yearly road tax is only £285. I agree with your comments on the performance. Simply ballistic but also effortless.

[996TT02]

VorsprungDurch said:

35 mpg when being frugal - I can't believe it.. Must be a typo and meant 25..

I have seen 29.9 average on a mostly motorway run of circa 2000 miles.

Was not making any effort, I suspect that if one did drive especially carefully on suitable roads 35 must be attainable, if not exactly fun.

More typical however is around 24, which includes a fair bit of enthusiastic driving up "proper" mountains.

[RWD cossie wil]

aww999 said:

Geesus said:

Lovely car.
I'm fishing around for a nice car for weekends and Trackdays.
4 seats will keep the wife happy too!
How does the 996 Turbo compare to the 996 GT3 and 997 Turbo in track terms?

I asked this back on page 1 but no responses yet. Default answer seems to be "buy a GT3" but they are ina different price bracket now, and I really need rear seats!

Before I bought mine, I drove my mates remapped K16 turbo (420bhp std not 450bhp with bigger turbos) around castle coombe, I didn't really go for it hard as it was someone else's car, and being lanky I can't hit the brake pedal easily, so I was taking it fairly easy. However, I was still hitting over 140mph on the start finish straight, and the brakes held up amazingly well for a fairly heavy car. Not having driven anything else on track it's hard to say, but with a bit of practice you would be very quick in one. I thought for a nearly standard road car it performed brilliantly.

[chungasarnies]

First properly fast car I ever had a go in. Braved about 5s of full throttle. Neck-snappingly fast. As easy to drive as a Golf, though if I remember correctly it felt like you would need to push it really hard to get the best from it

[CheesyFootballs]

paulvx220T said:

Enjoy your new car just sold my X50 after 4 months great car but did not connect with it, it did not put a smile on my face, just bought a Lotus Exige S and the smile is back. Cars are a personal choice so good luck.

I echo the above.
(Right down to your replacement)

The turbo is incredibly capable, but didn't do it for me in 2 years of ownership.
I didn't dislike it per se, just didn't gel.

[rgracin]

A good choice sir. We bought ours in January this year. Went into it eyes wide open ( you need to). Bought a fairly high mileage car for a good price in the colour of choice, dark blue. Always planned for it to be a long term keeper and it's Mrs G's daily driver so didn't mind it not being a perfect garage queen. I like tinkering! so first job was to attack those damn rusty turbo nuts. Whilst I had it all off, I went for recon turbos. Some of the manifold bolts snapped, but long story short (I could write a whole thread on the job) I put it all back together with better quality hardware and it goes as good as new.

If you read the internet you end up stting yourself about what might happen, and how difficult or expensive it is to repair, but if you take a methodical approach, many things are doable at home. The engine doesn't need to come out as much as the internet would have you believe!!

Rads will be my next job.

[leedsutd1]

Nice car I know someone who sold a 2002, black turbo ,around 3 years ago for 21k must be worth a fair bit more now. back to the 911 in the story my first job would have been to put 2 black hoses on in the engine bay

[Mavican]

Theres a few tiptronic Turbo's on ebay including at least one X50.And they're winking at me.....

[666TUR]

aww999 said:

Geesus said:

Lovely car.
I'm fishing around for a nice car for weekends and Trackdays.
4 seats will keep the wife happy too!
How does the 996 Turbo compare to the 996 GT3 and 997 Turbo in track terms?

I asked this back on page 1 but no responses yet. Default answer seems to be "buy a GT3" but they are ina different price bracket now, and I really need rear seats!

They are more competent than people expect on the track. Interesting old video on you tube showing them being tracked.

http://youtu.be/unhYTgk5xZU